Montelukast

[ohdearherewegoagain]

Two weeks on montelukast and the asthma and breathlessless and lack of energy is better, but my memory and concentration are shot to pieces, very hard to think straight or do my work. Will hope this passes after a bit or will have to stop taking it.

[Birthday60]

Montelukast was a game changer for me - miracle drug. I have a big job responsible for a large international company with a lot of travel, meetings and long hours. This has made no perceptible difference to my intellectual capacity and has given me a new lease of life. Don’t give up too easily.

[ohdearherewegoagain in reply to Birthday60]

Hi birthday60 how long were you on it before it helped you properly? Dont forget it is great for people who have allergies etc, if it does not work for people it is probably because allergies are not the problem. Do you still use inhalers etc?

[Birthday60 in reply to ohdearherewegoagain]

I noticed a positive difference within week - I also take Symicort on the Smart protocol and Spiriva plus the VERY occasional Ventolin before vigorous exercise

[DeanSamson in reply to Birthday60]

Hi I'm on the exact same meds as you but without the montlukast. I am having bad allergies at the moment and thinking of going on going on it. I seem to be having issues with post nasal drip which is effecting my throat and vocal chords. I have 30 days worth which the doctors gave me a while ago. Should I start them?

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador in reply to ohdearherewegoagain]

I don't have allergic asthma and it worked for me. I came off it twice, once because I had a consultant who was determined to take me off everything as she decided I had mild asthma (um, nope) and more recently because my current consultant felt it didn't work well for non-allergic asthma or really at all. I didn't agree with that as it had worked for me but at the time it didn't seem to be a huge thing.

Today I asked the specialist nurse to try again as I have no other options currently (already on anything else that might help), and it helped with the everyday low level symptoms before.

It does seem, as with other asthma drugs, to be very good for some people and useless for others. And some people get bad side effects and others are fine. Same with Phyllocontin which can cause horrible side effects in some and I have never had issues with.

[ohdearherewegoagain in reply to Lysistrata]

Thanks for the reply hope you are feeling well now. have been on montelukast for three weeks. I have always struggled with the heat and prefered winter time because of it, but the past few weeks have felt extremely hot all of the time, it was overwhelming and awful. I also got a sore throat and swollen lymph glands past few days. I also noticed that when I used the spirometer where I am normally 145 on my own and up to 300 with inhalers it was no better. Whereas at the start it would go to 200 and I felt better energy and breathing wise. So yesterday I stopped taking the montelukast and already today I am not feeling extremely hot and my lymph glands are back to normal and my sore throat is getting better. Think I will have to contact my consultant in the near future for what I should try next. I had tried all of the inhalers and this was the next option, but I always get bad side effects with whatever.

[ohdearherewegoagain in reply to Lysistrata]

Thank you. Had not heard of phyllocontin before will research it. had tried all of the inhalers and theyh worked but the side effects were awful. Now montelukast is giving me bad side effects - feeling extremely hot - sore throat, closing throat where I cannot breath, bad concentration and memory. So have stopped taking it yesterday and already teh throat is tgetting better, memory and concentration are and am not boiling not. The thing is what to try next if tried all the inhalers?

[greggs]

I've been on montelukast for three months no change with my breathing but my memory has deteriorated until I read your post I thought it was dementia .

[ohdearherewegoagain in reply to greggs]

Hi greggs, thanks for the response. I find that it is definitely affecting memory and concentration though not as much as it did before. My breathing seemed to get better for a week and then is back to normal. The reason I was put on the montelukast is because I got too many side effects from the inhalers. Got sick of people NOT LISTENING to this and thinking that if they give me a list of inhalers there will be some on there I had not tried. Like I would not have already done all that! How are you now? Are you still on the montelukast? Are you still using any other medicines for it?

[greggs in reply to ohdearherewegoagain]

Still on montelulast ,Fostair and ventolin to stabilize my breathing and it's not improving .Waiting for the third chest x-ray to see what the shadow is and then maybe a ct scan hopefully I will be sorted out soon so tired at the moment the weather isn't helping.

[wiserlady in reply to ohdearherewegoagain]

had same problem. would tell them the inhalers dont work or the side effcts are bad and they would ignore it or talk as if the one they want you to take is different

[TJRN1959]

Montelukast does appear to work extremely well for many people, and my direct experience is of amazing peak flow figures within a fortnight of first taking the drug. But, and it's a very big but, it is known to have potentially serious neuropsychiatric side effects. For me this started with weird dreams and ended up in a deep depression. I'm talking depression as in curled-up-in-a-ball-on-the-floor-screaming terror attacks and what is curiously termed "suicidal ideation". So if you are thinking that Montelukast might just be affecting your state of mind then as a matter of urgency do two things. Firstly search "Montelukast Neuropsychiatric side effects" on the interweb, and then, once you've found the various references and papers from Holland, the US and Australia, go and see your GP. I don't want to frighten you, but it took a while for me to work out what was happening to me and why, and eight months on I'm still suffering the consequences.

[ohdearherewegoagain in reply to TJRN1959]

Hope you are feeling better now, thanks for sharing that

[Bucketlist]

I started to do my daughters Tax return during my last Asthma Exacerbation (as the Doctor called it) as I wasn’t able to do anything else. Had another look at it last week ready to put it all online, what a mess! Couldn’t understand how I got the figures that I put onto the spreadsheets, thank goodness I didn’t send it off!

I only lasted for 2 weeks on Montelukast as It had a very bad effect on my stomach. Hope you feel better soon. I was surprised at how long it took me to get completely well.

[gerrytlloyd]

Ditto the mental side-effects. I was on it for a month and it seemed to work fine at first, just two pills a day. But before the month was up I found myself struggling to breathe at work and that surprised me. (Now, I use Fostair and only need one puff in the evening to get me through the night. In the day-time I'm in a place with good air conditioning and I use no meds there. Once or twice have taken dispersible aspirin if I sensed a slight tightness in the chest - long story: facebook.com/aspirin2relief/ )

After that month, I was out of work for a bit. I was at home with the TV and noticed that I kept thinking things like "I'd be better off dead". Might seem not too abnormal but it was the conviction in the thoughts that was alarming. I would strive to 'change the subject' internally and then, without realizing it, was thinking the same thing again. This would happen over and over, every minute or so, until I remembered perhaps I had seen "suicidal thoughts" on the list of side-effects on the Montelukast fly-sheet. 'Hadn't paid much attention when reading the list but am glad that I did. A girl in New Zealand did kill herself while she was using it and perhaps her parents had never noticed the warning on he fly-sheet? There is a facebook page devoted to warning parents in NZ about montelukast (known as Singulair.) As soon as I stopped taking the montelukast my thoughts became normal again. I was tempted to try it again once and the same thing happened.